MariAn Gail Brown: Stratford's hard line on these kids an injustice

Updated 12:49 pm, Friday, May 27, 2011

No, Wade isn't homeless -- not yet. But she's in the same boat as you after school officials questioned whether her two sons really lived in Stratford and had a right to attend Chapel Street School.

In the dead of winter in 2009, an investigation was launched into whether the boys, a first-grader and a sixth-grader, lived where Wade claimed they did, at the home of their grandmother, Marie Menard. Three times over a two-month span, school authorities sent their student registration manager, Michael Imbro, a former police chief, to Menard's place. Imbro concluded "the case should be closed," according to an August 2010 police report, "due to lack of evidence showing that Wade's children did not live in the district."

For years, Wade had lived with her parents -- even after her first son was born. And she did the same thing when her second son came along. Then she became eligible for an apartment in June 2007 with the Milford Housing Authority. She moved in. Five days out of the week, on school days, the boys stayed with Menard, their grandmother.

"Their grandmother has a parental-like relationship with her grandsons," attorney Josephine Miller says. "That's how it's always been. It's an informal arrangement. They would sleep over there during the school week. They had their own bedroom in her house."

And then Wade's case was reopened in October 2010, after Stratford school officials noticed that another parent listed Wade as an emergency contact and that her address was in Milford.

Rather than go to trial on first-degree larceny charges for theft of $39,540 in educational services -- the cost of three years worth of tuition for the two boys -- Wade and Menard accepted accelerated rehabilitation and promised to pay back $13,300 as restitution with $100 in monthly payments.

Obviously, they are being made an example. But it appears the boys had a legitimate right to attend Stratford schools because they lived with their grandmother. It's the same sort of choice faced by divorcing couples. Generally, their children are enrolled at schools in the community where the kids spend most of their time.

Nationwide, the number of children being raised by their grandparents since the start of the 2008 recession has skyrocketed, according to the latest Pew Research Center study, which finds that one in 10 kids in this country now live with a grandparent.

Given this increased role of grandparents, it seems logical that school systems should recognize this relationship, rather than put blinders on, kick the kids out, seek the arrest of the parent and grandparent -- and demand restitution in the form of back tuition. It's cruel and over-the-top punishment.

Connecticut has no laws governing informal custody arrangements such as the one between parents and grandparents -- the kind Wade and her mom have had.

"Written, informal agreements are not legally enforceable, and do not give grandparents any legal rights to custody," Susan Price, an analyst with the state Office of Legislative Research, states in a report to Connecticut lawmakers on grandparents' rights.

But that doesn't mean informal written agreements are worthless. "They might give grandparents who are caring for their grandchildren the documentation they need to make decisions for the child," Price says.

Unlike McDowell, the homeless mom who was arrested and forced to remove her son from a Norwalk school, Wade's troubles don't end with registering her sons in Milford. Not by a long shot. The scuttlebutt is that the Milford Housing Authority may seek to evict her, not because she misled it on her lease or any of its renewals. She did list her sons as residents because they spent weekends with her there. If the Milford Housing Authority boots Wade, it may be because when the court grants someone accelerated rehabilitation, a public housing agency views her as guilty of a crime.